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Sunday, November 01, 2009

Law - "Digital Data Makes For A Really Permanent Record"

The ILB wrote Oct. 8th on the "Streisand effect", when, for example, an attempt to expunge past criminal records instead creates additional public records.

And even if a record is expunged, often it isn't really. NPR's Martin Kaste had a nearly 8-minute report on All Things Considered Oct. 29 that began:

There was a time when defense lawyer Robert Perez did a brisk business expunging criminal records. People who'd been acquitted of criminal charges could clear the record and start over with their lives.

But no more.

"They find out everything," the suburban Seattle lawyer says. "There's no such thing as privacy of criminal records anymore."

Perez says prospective employers and landlords will find out about the criminal record anyway because they use private database services that are unaffected by a court's expungement order.

"It's a big problem because these people are being confronted by the situation where they've told an employer — as they're entitled to — that this never happened," Perez says. "And the employer has conflicting information. They don't get the job, and they never learn why."

Information doesn't fade the way it used to. Documents that once upon a time could be counted on to be filed and forgotten are now finding an afterlife in digital, searchable form.

This is the last of a 4-part series. The earlier stories were:

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 1, 2009 08:04 AM
Posted to General Law Related